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by superuser2 3835 days ago
I've got to hand it to Fing, they've convinced people to pay through the nose for something we used to do for free.

Nmap. You want nmap.

2 comments

Fing is free. You only have to pay for their "enterprise cloud" offering. There is no nmap for the iPhone.
Talk about not easy to use. I am not ashamed to say I can't figure this software out and I'm a software developer. What am I supposed to do in the case that it demands I set a target? Localhost? It'll tell me all about what I'm connected to.

192.168.1.1? That tells me what my router is connected to but that isn't necessarily what I want. 90% of output is just what it is doing. Oh you initialised, completed, initialised, completed, Unable to split netmask from target expression, script post-scanning, Read data files from: /usr/local/bin/../share/nmap.

I have no immediately identifiable use for this.

True, the syntax is cryptic and unintuitive. Target is a subnet in CIDR notation, i.e. 192.168.1.0/24. The other various options describe the scan to perform. You can do simple pings, a full portscan, a quick portscan of the few most popular ports, and enable various IDS-evasion behaviors.

Fing provides something of a value-add by wrapping its sort of functionality in a nice UI. It's just amusing to see people discover Fing as though it were the first or only tool of its kind.

nmap is a universal stalwart of network security since the late 90s. It is the classic "hacking tool" long predating Metasploit, and Hollywood VFX people have even figured this out - it features in hacking scenes in Matrix Reloaded, Battle Royale, Bourne Ultimatum, and Elysium. I suspect ease of use has never been a priority, since its target audience is fellow open-source-savvy l33t haxxors.